Caddo County, just west of Oklahoma City, has been hit by at least 111 tornadoes from 1950 through 2012. The rest of central Oklahoma is about as unlucky.

Geography is to blame, particularly from mid-April through mid-June, when conditions ideal for tornadoes occur with regular frequency. The Gulf of Mexico and its warm, humid air is close by to the south. Just to the west and northwest is Colorado and, in particular, the Colorado Front Range with its peaks to 13,000 feet. The Front Range acts to strengthen low-pressure areas that draw dry air from the west and humidity from the south. The southerly winds near the ground undercut the dry air blowing in rapidly from the west/northwest, which creates rapidly rising air and spin. The result, more often than any other place in the world, is tornadoes.